We're still fumbling sex education

I still remember the scandalous premiere of my Fife primary school's "dirty film", in the early 70s, just before I went up to "big school", says Mary Braid. My parents were asked to view the innovative sex education film first so they could okay me seeing it. My dad said later that some parents had sniggered their way through the film - and then refused permission for their children to see it.

I saw the film but it can't have been that explicit because a couple of months later, when my friend, Elaine, asked me if I knew where my vagina was, I had to admit that I was unsure as to its exact location. Elaine warned me that I would have to find it pretty damn quick because it was my job to guide boys to it. All those thoughts of maps, compasses and torches only added to my confusion.

When I was asked to look at sex education for the Guardian, I expected to find little of the wooliness, embarrassment and lack of consensus that characterised my own school sex ed. I thought that there would at least be a national sex and relationship education (SRE) curriculum tied to our efforts to reduce teen pregnancies. In fact, I found that there is no such thing and, therefore, that SRE provision in both primaries and secondaries varies wildly in terms of both quality and quantity.

I also found that some schools, particularly secondaries, don't want to talk about SRE. One school, serving a diverse community, claimed it lived in constant fear of a sex ed backlash by conservative parents. However, confrontation might soon be unavoidable.

A campaign for compulsory SRE - led by the UK Youth Parliament - is gathering momentum. Isn't it time we gave children and young people the information that the youth parliament argues is theirs by right?